WASHINGTON — John Kenny Baker was stunned when he applied for veterans’ health care last fall and was told his household income was too high.
“I’m retired, and my wife makes about $50,000 a year,” the 65-year-old Army veteran said. “That’s not a lot, but they told me in February we still make too much.”
Baker, who lives outside Nashville, Tenn., said he retired last fall because of a hip injury. The couple spends about $60 on prescriptions each month and a few hundred dollars on health care through his wife’s employer.
“If we could save just a little on that, it’d be tremendous,” Baker said.
He may have relief on the way. Veterans Affairs officials plan to add more than 266,000 veterans to the health care program by October 2010, part of a new effort by the White House to expand coverage to those left out of the system in recent years.
Philip Matkovsky, deputy chief business officer for VA member services, said as many as 4,000 new veterans could be enrolled in the next few weeks, and the department will send out letters to nearly half a million others asking them to reapply and see if they qualify under the new rules.
As the economy has faltered, the department has seen a sizeable leap in the number of veterans outside the system asking for help.
In the first six months of 2008, just under 30,000 veterans applied for hardship benefits from the department, a temporary enrollment into the health care system. So far in 2009, more than 69,000 have asked for the same help.
But the eligibility changes could add hundreds of thousands to the system before they hit financial failure, Matkovsky said. The eligibility changes apply only to veterans in the department’s lowest priority ranking, Priority 8: Those are veterans without any service-connected disabilities and who make more than $29,000 annually.
Prior to 2003 most Priority 8 veterans were eligible for health coverage, but since then veterans in that group have been shut out of the system because of the costs of providing benefits. Thanks to $543 million in new funding this fiscal year, the VA will now start adding some of that group back into the system.
Still, not everyone will be eligible for coverage, Matkovsky said. The VA will determine eligibility using an exhaustive list of income thresholds based on where veterans live.
For example, under the new rules, a veteran living in Washington, D.C., with no dependents must have a family income of less than $47,355 this year to qualify for health care coverage. A veteran living in Phoenix would have to make under $39,545 to qualify.
In the most expensive region, San Francisco, a veteran with no dependents making less than $69,685 will be eligible. A veteran living there with a wife and two children can earn $107,470 annually as a family and still receive the health care coverage.
In the Nashville region, the figure for a veteran with one dependent is $44,495. That’s still less than what Baker and his wife earn, but Matkovsky said VA officials are asking all veterans who think they are close to qualifying to submit an application.
“There are deductions for medical expenses and other calculations,” he said. “So the message we’re trying to get out there is that you may be eligible, and you should apply.”
The VA has also set up an online calculator on its Web site where individuals can check whether their salary falls above or below the cutoff for benefits.
For higher priority veterans — those injured on duty, those living in poverty, former prisoners of war — free health care is virtually guaranteed, provided they received an honorable discharge.
Recent combat veterans are also promised free health benefits, and are currently ranked by the Department as Priority 6, the same as World War II veterans. In all, department officials said about 7.7 million people are currently in the health care system.
Priority 8s in the system face co-pays for doctor visits and prescriptions, but save hundreds compared with the cost of a private health insurance plan.
“It really is a great deal,” Matkovsky said.
Individuals who applied after Jan. 1 will have their cases automatically reviewed by the VA. Veterans like Baker who applied earlier will receive letters stating that they might now be eligible, but will have to reapply on their own.
Matkovsky said officials are working with veterans service organizations to reach out to those who may not have applied in the past because they assumed they didn’t qualify.
Scott Langhoff, a service officer for the Veterans Of Foreign Wars San Diego office, said workers there will be passing out the information to all the veterans they can.
He has seen an uptick in the last year in the number of veterans asking about VA benefits, and health care has been a big topic since the White House first outlined the expansion plan this spring.
“We’re seeing a lot of older veterans who are getting laid off, getting let go from their jobs,” he said. “So obviously, anything that can save them some money helps.”
To use the VA eligibility calculator, visit www.va.gov/healtheligibilty.
